Dance Your Way to Good Health

Dancing can be a most enjoyable form of exercise. But, what most people don't know is that it also has a large number of health benefits. Dancing is a great full out mind and body workout. It can make your body and soul feel good in a way that no other exercise can. The benefits of dancing are like no other. It can help you lose weight, strengthen and tone your body, increase stamina and flexibility, improve balance and posture, and produce confidence among other things. Although dancing may appeal mostly to women, in the last number of years the most popular forms of dance have included males just as much as females. Whether it be dancing the waltz, cha cha, or rhumba - dancing can be a great form of exercise for anyone.

Dancing can be used in place of regular low – impact exercises such as cycling, walking, or aerobics. Depending on the form of the dance, you can actually burn a large amount of calories doing it. Who would have thought you could have fun and lose weight at the same time?!? Research shows that a 150-pound adult can actually burn approximately 150 calories doing 30 minutes of social dancing. The best part is you're not even thinking about losing the weight while doing it.

Researchers believe that dancing can keep your mind and body healthy as you age. Any kind of dancing increases the number of chemicals being produced in the brain to help with the growth of nerve cells. More importantly, dances that require you to learn certain steps can actually increase your brain power and help to improve your memory skills. Dancing has even been known to help reduce the risk of Alzheimer's disease.

Any kind of dance has you using all the different parts of your body. This also means that all the different muscles in your body are being used. This helps to strengthen and tone your muscles without hurting your joints. It also helps to strengthen bones, and tone your entire body. Specific dances also have certain benefits for your body. For example, belly dancing helps prevent lower back problems; ballroom dancing helps keep the heart in shape; and salsa dancing helps lower blood pressure and cholesterol. All forms of dance however are known to lower your risk of heart disease, help with weight loss, and strengthen the bones and muscles in your legs and hips.

Overall, dancing has become a well known form of exercise. Recently it has reached out to both males and females with its new age forms of ballroom dancing. Ballroom dancing has become a part of the entertainment industry which has given it its rising appeal. However,
there are many different forms of dance to try out, all of which keep you in good health and are lots of fun.